Name: Rashid dar-Fariq dar-Abhir dar-BashirPlayer:Paladin101Concept: A devout dervish of Upuaut. He serves often as a guide for caravans going to or from Sha’ib as a way to both make money, and to help keep the lines of communication open between the Tribes and the City. Trouble: He killed the son of a powerful Hadaree Wizir when he discovered him and a band of his friends despoiling an ancient temple of Upuaut that had been buried beneath the sands. The Hadaree were taking the offerings which had been left for Upuaut, and intended to take them back to town. Rashid did not allow this, and now there is a powerful wizir who holds a powerful grudge. Sex: MaleAge: 30Orientation: StraightOn’s: Strong, independent women,oral, teasing, romance, light bondage(giving and receiving)Off’s: Anything bathroom, humiliation or high pain related. Race or People: Bedu

Appearance:Hair: blackEyes: greenHeight:5’10”Weight:170 lbs

Description:Rashid is a slender, well muscled man whose body has been honed and weathered by years of traveling the Great Dune Sea. He keeps his beard as well trimmed as he can on the road, often looking nicer when he is visiting town. He has a number of scars along his arms, torso and legs from years of facing the dangers of the desert, and facing down those who threaten the freedom of the Bedu.

Armor/Attire

One Unique Thing: Rashid believes Upuaut speaks to him on the wind sometimes, and wil often go to the highest point he can reach to whisper his prayers into a passing windstorm.

Personality: Rashid is a man who finds joy in the simple things, a beautiful sunset, a crisp apple, a beautiful woman, all of these are blessings he enjoys whenever he can. He believes in finding what joy he can in each day, as he never knows where tomorrow’s journeys will take him, and this often makes it hard for him to make lasting friends. But those friends he does make find him to be a loyal friend who will travel the length of the Dune Sea to come to their aid.

Residence: A tent he carries on his trusty camel, or when in Sha’ib he has a favorite house he will occupy in the more deserted parts of the city.

History:Born to the Bashir clan of the Bedu, Rashid was never destined to be an important man. His father was a simple soldier, and the Bashir clan had never been one of the more powerful clans of the Bedu. Yet Rashid found pleasure in the life of a soldiers son, and was a happy youth, brave and bold as he often would strike out into the desert around the camp of his tribe without his parents permission. On one such journey he became lost in a sandstorm, and managed to find shelter in a ruin half buried beneath a dune. He would later learn that the ruin he sheltered in was an ancient temple to Upuaut. As he hid in the temple, he heard a voice whispering to him, telling him what to do to survive. When the storm passed the voice was still speaking, talking to him about the wonders to be found by taking such chances, by striking out, and searching the world for new sights.

So began his worship of Upuaut. Soon after he saw a dervish engage a band of outsiders who were trying to raid the caravan his family was traveling with. He became fascinated by the way the twisting, turning combat of the scimitar wielding dervish resembled the flowing movement of Upuaut's wind. He managed to convince a dervish to train him, and dedicated himself to the art of the dervish. In every flowing movement of his body he saw the winds of Upuaut, and devoted himself to becoming a living embodiment of Upuaut's will. He trained hard for years, until he was eighteen summers old, and was told he was a man, and was to begin his own personal journey.

Rashid set out, determined to map and explore as much of the Dune Sea as he could. For six years he traveled the Dune Sea without pause, and without returning once to a place he had been before. The maps he made were of fine quality, and he found many small grottos and places of beauty in his journeys. Returning home, he discovered his parents had died in a raid from outsiders who broke the laws of hospitality. The Bashir tribe was weakened and in need of a form of wealth. Rashid offered to go guide trade caravans from the city to the tribe, something that had been hard for them as the Bashir tribe rested deep in the desert. The tribe agreed, and ever since, for six months of the year, Rashid has served as guide to caravans going to and from the depths of the Dune Sea.

Paladin101 - Please shrink that second image of his armor. I love the character, but see the note below. You are not the only player to do this. Honestly I think he is awesome without being a Dervish.

GM Note

This is something that is cropping up and I would like to check it a little now. Please do not double and triple up concepts in one character. Clerics (Priests/Paladins) should not be Mages and Mages should not be Clerics. No one should have more than one form of magic please. These are callings and you do a disservice to your god or your magic to not devote your full time to it. I did not mention this before sorry.

Not magic in the flash-bang sense, but gods look after their devout in their own ways.

Priests and Paladins have a calling which would prevent them from learning a whole different vocation.

You can be someone that worships a god and be a Dervish, but a Paladin/Dervish is a no-go. Dervishes spend a lot of time working on their dances as they have to be perfection in order to work and the movements are complex and subtle/

Quick question then, as the deity I worship is the god of the wind and travel and such, one of the things I wanted to do with dervish magic is like air walking as he spun, being able to take steps up in the air, maybe small columns of air pushing up sand to serve as footholds for him, so he could walk up and around his enemies as he fought them. Could his paladin magic accomplish this still?

Paladin101 - Not necessarily. You could simply make him a devoted follower of Upuaut and not a paladin. That way your Dervish could use his dances to honor Upuaut. It is a subtle difference but an important one. Your background still very much works that way.

I'm not really concerned with having competitive game mechanics, since this is freeform and I like the concept of a paladin regardless. But I'm not sure what the draw is to being a paladin/Bull. It sounds like you could say, my character is a sand mage who follows Apsu and works with the church to safeguard water, or you could say, my character is a paladin of Apsu, but that then prohibits her from using magic.

What could a paladin expect in return for giving up these other, very flavorful options?

Dhi - For the Bedu a priest or paladin would have better access to an oasis especially of the tribe is friendly or at least neutral to your god. They are generally respected by the different nomad tribes which is really important when out on the sands.

Like I said if you are a priest or paladin your god may tweak things in your favor. It would be up to the player to explain how. If you are fighting something that goes against your god well.....then your God could flex their muscle a little bit and show the bad guys who is boss. I just see the gifts offered to a Priest or a Paladin to be distinctly different than the obtuse form magics usually take.

I would suggest that a Priest or Paladin that wants special powers should take a skill of Prayers. Those that simply want the better station offered by being a Priest/Paladin can take the title without the skill.

One other thing....While a Paladin of Apsu can get away with killing a fellow Bedu that was trying to poison an Oasis, an extremely devout follower of Apsu would still have to answer to the Sheikh of the man doing the poisoning and at least make restitution to him for the loss of the dead man.

Subtle miracles in favor of the character with the occasional spectacular display of the god's favor if they avoid sins. If you are looking for gaming terms you can boost things you do that match your gods Aspects and Duties as these are your god's focus and they care little about things outside their focus.

Bulls of Apsu likely don't need to drink as much water to stay hydrated or can feel Apsu's strength course through them when defending an oasis. If a Bull is lost in the desert and dying a stray camel may happen by at just the right time. A Jug of Apsu can purify water, has little to fear of hippos, can find water were others find none...etc...etc...

I have Farrah as a Hadaree rather than Bedu, since Hadaree are described as anyone born in the city, regardless of bloodline. Her family is certainly Bedu.

In that case being a Bull of Apsu would benefit her even more with the Bedu tribes. She would be seen as remembering her old ways and may even be seen by some as still being Bedu. While all Bedu are required by hospitality to give a traveler access to water, they do not have to be nice about it if they consider them dangerous or untrustworthy. Being a Bull of Apsu would go a long way in easing any tensions.

Ok, I decided to take your suggestion of being a devout dervish, so now I changed up the history to put the dervish back in, and the pathfinder out. lol. Basically aiming to be a pathfinder in all but name, extremely devout but worshipping Upuaut through the flowing movements of his dervish dance.

This is a fantasy game so there will certainly be magic and other cool abilities being thrown around. I want this to be present but not out of hand.

Magic is not easy so do not make it so. It is strenuous and dangerous to the user. If it wasn't, people would be using it right and left. They don't. If I think you are going nuts I will GM some sort of drawback or backlash. The more powerful the spell the more backlash their will be.

Healing Spells and potions help heal they do not insta-heal. The only thing that can insta-heal is wishcraft which is not available to characters.

Alchemists can make lots of interesting things, but put some drawbacks into your creations. Also remember that Alchemists still have to get the items they enchant, which is expensive if you are trying to make a dancing scimitar or a flying carpet.

Prayers have no drawbacks, but they are limited to your god's aspects and duties. If you build up sin or are not RPing your devotion to your god from time to time I will inform you that your prayers are not being answered. I will try to test your devotion from time to time with scenes that have some hard choices.

I am always interested in having shared backgrounds with people! I don't know how it would work with Kiral necessarily, but for the nascent flying archer that I linked a page back? Quite possibly. (Seriously, she is rad. And apparently we can double up...)